Driving schools in each district

A large number of people in this country are financially poor. The democratically elected government has a special responsibility to facilitate improvement in their economic conditions. Different measures can be taken to raise their level of income earnings. One such measures can be the setting up of driving schools in every district town and city and their proper operation. Such schools can turn out a few thousand trained drivers from different regions of the country every year. Properly trained, skilled drivers will ensure safer transport movement and help reduce the number of fatal accidents now taking place on the country's roads and highways every day. A large number of such skilled and trained drivers will also get the opportunity of going abroad with jobs and earn valuable foreign exchange for our country. They will then be able to raise the standards of living of their families. Huge amounts of money will not be required to set up, and operate, driving schools. A driving school can be provided with two mini-buses, two trucks and two double-cabin pick-up vans initially. The trainees will eventually become part of our skilled or semi-skilled manpower. Such manpower is an asset for the country. A joint venture involving Traffic Police, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, Technical Education Board and Bureau of Manpower, can be useful to set up and run, at least, one driving school in each district town in Bangladesh. The curricula of the driving schools should include driving a vehicle, imparting knowledge about the traffic rules and regulations, providing preliminary knowledge on automobile maintenance, social consequences of accidents etc. An estimated amount of Tk 2.0 billion may be required to establish 64 driving schools in all the district towns and cities, having the infrastructural facilities and vehicles to operate such schools. The amount is not too big, even if we just consider the number of annual fatal accidents in the country that can be reduced. More than this, the amount of investment by the government for establishing and operating such driving schools can be fully recovered within a very short span of time through remittances sent home by a good number of such trained drivers who will get employment opportunities in foreign countries. Md. Ashraf Hossain Ramna, Dhaka E-mail : mah120cb@yahoo.com